How a cheese-loving doggo is sniffing out the Gippsland gold

Scotch Hill Truffle Farm owner Ron Geritz describes his English pointer cross Boogie as a “cheese monster”.

In return for snuffling prized and valuable truffles, Boogie is rewarded with a handful of shredded cheese. Boogie’s mate Charlie is also involved in the operation, but Geritz reckons he’s too distracted by birds to focus on fungus.

Underneath rows of French Oak trees on a property overlooking the green hills of Neerim South are truffles that can fetch $3,000 to $5,000 per kilogram.

They are typically sold to upmarket restaurants and are usually shaved onto warm and creamy dishes like pasta or pizza to add a savoury and umami-rich flavour.

Geritz has trained Boogie and to a lesser extent Charlie to seek out the pungent fungus.

As the farmer strolls with the Monitor around the property, which he owns and operates with his wife Michelle Jones, Boogie paws at the ground to indicate a truffle is growing beneath the surface.

Geritz reaches into a plastic bag and pulls out a handful of shredded cheese. He puts out his hand and feeds it to Boogie - tail wagging furiously - who makes short work of it.

“Boogie is a rescue from Rockhampton. We brought him down when he was six-months old and trained him for two years. He's very good.”

Geritz said any dog can be trained to sniff out truffles if their temperament is suitable.

“Charlie can also find truffles,” Geritz said. But there is a catch: “He gets distracted by birds so much that he can't focus long enough to be efficient.”

Geritz puts a small piece of frozen black truffle into a metal container with four holes and tosses the container down the line of trees. He tells Boogie it’s time to hunt, and the dog starts feverishly sniffing along the row.

“Traditionally, they used to use pigs. But pigs can eat the truffles and they're hard to train, also they can eat your fingers. So, we use dogs,” Geritz said.

Once Boogie has indicated a truffle is growing, Geritz marks it on an app on his phone. The result is a map that shows what parts of the farm are productive, crucial in an industry where spoilage rates can be significant.

A troubled harvest

Bringing the fragile underground fungi to harvest is a challenge.

“It's really fickle, it's hard to say what you're going to get,” Geritz said. “At the moment, we’re finding about 50 percent of all our truffles are rotting or damaged.”

Truffle spores grow underground on the roots of trees, and the species of tree dictates the type of truffle that is cultivated. Black truffles do well on French oaks.

“Truffle fungus can't live by itself,” Geritz said. “It's a symbiotic relationship. The truffle fungus attaches to new roots and then as the tree grows each year, the fungus grows with it.”

Is it ready?

Geritz said it’s important not to disturb the truffle too much once you know it’s growing, as it  can stop the ripening.

“If you can smell the aroma, that's a good sign it's ready. Then you take a little knick and you look inside to see if it’s black with white white veins. If those boxes are ticked, you harvest the truffle.”

Fully grown black truffles can range in size from a small nut to a tennis ball.

How many underground mushrooms?

Geritz said truffles need soil with good drainage in order to grow but not rot. Each year they can produce up to 300kg of produce.

Scotch Hill Truffle Farm hunting event

Geritz and Jones host events, including a truffle hunt and meal. The next is on Saturday June 15. More information here.